MS-13 members prosecuted nationwide for brutal murders, fentanyl trafficking

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Federal, state and local law enforcement officers continue to target Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) U.S.-Salvadoran transnational gang members nationwide.

MS-13 was designated as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. The gang originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s to protect Salvadoran illegal foreign nationals but later expanded its criminal enterprise. Its members engage in “campaigns of violence and terror in the United States and internationally” and present “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” President Donald Trump said in a June MS-13 FTO order.

He issued it as part of an ongoing effort to target border-related crime and after more than 300,000 Salvadorans illegally entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

In California, five MS-13 leaders were found guilty of murdering other gang members by strangling, shooting, stabbing with knives or machetes or beating them with a baseball bat and then throwing their bodies off cliffs in remote, mountainous locations.

According to evidence presented at trial, they murdered rival 18th Street gang members or their own members who violated MS-13’s rules.

The most violent examples included stabbing and hacking to death a victim in the Angeles National Forest; attempts to decapitate him were unsuccessful. Another victim was lured by two teenage girls, kidnapped, strangled, beaten with a baseball bat then fatally stabbed with a large hunting knife. His body was thrown off a cliff in the Angeles National Forest.

Another victim was lured to Malibu Hills believing he was meeting others to smoke marijuana and drink beer but was shot in the back of the head. Multiple MS-13 members then took turns shooting him and threw his body down a hill.

The jury convicted the MS-13 members on multiple counts of murder and for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and committing violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR) murder.

The swift convictions sent “a powerful message that criminal gang violence and intimidation have no place in Los Angeles County,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “These violent individuals terrorized our communities and tore families apart to further their criminal network. Through the tireless efforts of our local and federal partners, we have brought justice to the victims’ families and held these individuals accountable for their brutal crimes.”

“MS-13 has inflicted unimaginable suffering on victims and their families in our communities,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “These guilty verdicts for crimes related to murder, extortion and drug trafficking against five members of MS-13’s leadership demonstrate the relentless and fearless partnership between local and federal law enforcement and prosecutors to bring these dangerous criminals to justice.”

Sentencing is scheduled for next July; they each face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors have secured 25 convictions so far in the case, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Additional MS-13 members and associates are scheduled to go to trial next April who were allegedly involved in a racketeering conspiracy and gang murders.

The FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are involved in the case.

In Nashville, Tenn., 38 people, including eight MS-13 members and associates, were charged on several counts related to trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine; carjacking, assaulting law enforcement, illegal firearm use and possession and immigration offenses. Many were in the country illegally, according to the charges.

Illegal foreign nationals who were charged include two for trafficking large quantities of fentanyl from Mexico into middle Tennessee; an MS-13 member for carjacking and illegally using and possessing a firearm; two MS-13 members and an associate for drug trafficking, assaulting a federal law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, and illegal re-entry; an MS-13 member for drug trafficking cocaine and marijuana, illegally possessing a firearm; an MS-13 associate for illegally possessing a firearm, which was also stolen and connected to the homicide of a 14-year-old girl; an MS-13 member and associate involved in a methamphetamine and cocaine distribution conspiracy resulting from a months’-long investigation.

Others were charged on multiple fentanyl trafficking and firearms violations. Those charged with fentanyl trafficking are responsible for a spike in fentanyl overdose deaths in Crossville, Tenn., according to the charges.

The case is the outworking of a Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by a Trump executive order, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” The Nashville HSTF includes multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Other HSTFs are making similar efforts nationwide, The Center Square reported.